An example of a shuffling device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,082. In this known shufflering shuffling apparatus the shuffling vessel is formed by a horizontally arranged drivable drum which is provided with radially extending shafts for receiving a card each. An input station for receiving a stack of discarded playing cards is provided through which the individual shafts of the drum are supplied. The storage container for the shuffled cards is supplied by the drum. Following the activation of a card ejector, the individual cards are pushed into the storage container at random.
A similar card shuffler has become known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,712 in which the drum is vertical.
A very high degree of shuffling is achieved with such card shufflers. The foreseeability of the card sequence in the shuffled card stack is virtually impossible for a third party even in the case of using electronic aids.
In these known solutions there are card storage means for retrieving the shuffled cards individually. This leads to the disadvantage, however, that such card shufflers can only be used for certain games, but not for such games where a removal in stacks of the shuffled cards is provided.
A card shuffling apparatus with an output apparatus for retrieving cards is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,085 A which by way of a respective activation can be supplied from the shuffling storage means not only with individual cards, but also with several cards, so that an entire stack of cards can be taken from the output apparatus.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,122 A, a card shuffling apparatus is known which also conveys entire playing card stacks to an intended output apparatus.
The differentiation whether or not entire stacks of cards or merely individual cards are conveyed to the output apparatus is solved in the last two documents electronically. The output apparatuses per se remain the same and can thus not be adapted to the different card games.
It is the object of the present invention to avoid this disadvantage and to propose a card shuffler of the kind mentioned above which can be used for both types of games.
The proposed measures lead to a modular arrangement of the card shuffler, with an exchange of the card storage means for the shuffled cards being possible in a simple way. A card storage means for the individual retrieval of cards can be replaced for example very simply by one for the retrieval of cards in stacks and vice-versa.
Principally, the receiving means can be provided with any desired arrangement and can comprise groove- and spring-shaped shapings, for example with which the card storage means and the basic body mutually engage. The fixing can be provided by means of a fixable alignment pin for example. It is also possible, however, to provide connections by clips or snap-in connections such as spring-loaded balls or pins as receiving means for the card storage means which latch into respective latching recesses of the card storage means or the basic body of the shuffler.
In one embodiment, the content of each compartment of the shufflers storage means is securely pushed into a nip line between two rollers during the output which convey the same into the card storage means for the shuffled cards.
This also allows shuffling more than one card into a compartment of the shuffling storage means and thus keeping the card shuffler relatively small. This allows operating such a shuffler on a game table even when a larger number of card stacks, such as six or eight, are in the game and need to be managed. The nip rollers can either be provided with an elastically deformable coating or be pressed in a resilient way against one another which also allows an adjustment to the thickness of the content of the compartment to be ejected which can also hold several cards, e.g. a card stack with nine cards.
In one embodiment, the card shuffling storage means is a drum having radially arranged compartments. The cards are held in the individual compartments and cannot slip outwardly by centrifugal force and thus prevent any contact of the cards with a housing enclosing the drum. This leads to a very substantial protection of the cards.
Moreover, in the case of any required exchange of a drum, it is not necessary to remove the cards from the compartment of the same. Instead, the drum including the cards contained in the same can be exchanged.
In one embodiment, a card sensor is provided to detect the cards used in a game. It is not only possible to check their number, but also the card picture, as a result of which any changes to the cards can be recognized.